Jan 2026 - present
Repository • GitHub Organisation
Essence Tutor is a sub-project of the Artificial Intelligence for Decision Making research project at the University of St. Andrews which aims to lessen the learning curve of the Essence constraint satisfaction problem modelling language. It consists of educational material which introduces learners to concepts and then gets them to apply it through stepped exercises.
I proposed Essence Tutor when I first joined the research project because I found it hard to find good, accessible resources that could introduce me to modelling with Essence. This sentiment was echoed by many within the project and the School of Computer Science at St. Andrews as a whole.
During the 2025/26 academic year, I laid the groundwork for the project, defining what it should cover and how users should interact with it. I also wrote the first few chapters of content and built a prototype interface to explore how one might be implemented. For future years, I hope to continue this project and build it into its own application, as well as substantiate the content so it can be used as a full introduction to Essence.
Overall, feedback for the project has been very positive. For the 2025/26 academic year, I achieved a first-class grade (20/20) for my work and hope to continue working on Essence Tutor next year.
“Your work demonstrates independence, motivation, and a willingness to contribute to tools that will benefit a wider community of users and learners.” (2026)